James Conlon

Partner

James began his career as a professional poker player, building his venture capital skill-set on over 1,000,000 hands of experience in risk assessment and financial modeling. He is now leading Bullpen’s efforts in markets such as ecommerce and is also focused on the rapidly growing LA startup ecosystem. James co-founded the start-up intelligence firm Venture Scanner, and still serves as an adviser to the company. He has conducted independent research in the fields of particle physics and materials science, and helped fabricate the calorimeter cooling systems now in operation in the ATLAS particle collider at CERN (which eventually proved the existence of the Higgs Boson). He was recognized for his research with a 1st Place award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, and was also selected as one of only two students to represent the United States at the MILSET International Sciences-Expo in Grenoble, France. He received his B.A. from Bucknell University in 2006 and his J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law in 2009.

Portfolio Companies

BUILT IN LA | James Conlon doesn't possess anything that could be described as a traditional venture capitalist background. Instead of going to Stanford, getting an MBA and interning at Google, Conlon went to Bucknell and graduated with a degree in philosophy. He's also a former professional poker player and has a law degree from American University. Now an LA-based partner for Bullpen Capital, he's dedicated to growing local tech startups, and it all started with two chairs, an elevator and a few NSFW quips between complete strangers.